Personal use motor vehicles such as automobiles, station wagons, hatchbacks, sports utility vehicles, vans, and pick-up trucks are used on an almost daily basis to transport people and to transport articles for household and other uses. Consumer articles such as groceries are typically bagged and placed inside the vehicle on a seat, floor area, trunk area, or cargo area. Consumer articles such as potted plants are more likely to be put into a trunk area or a back cargo area of the vehicle. Small reusable articles for occasional use such as fishing tackle, sports equipment, and the like will likely be placed in the vehicle where they can be out of sight but conveniently retrieved, for example; the trunk or cargo area.
Anyone who has ever driven a motor vehicle knows that articles to be transported can pose a problem. Cargo such as filled grocery bags in particular represents a widely experienced problem. They tend to fall over and spill their contents when the vehicle turns a corner even at slow speeds and certainly upon sudden stops. The problem can be lessened in automobiles that have deep back seat floor wells by placing items there. However, vehicles with a flat floor area, flat trunk area, or a flat back cargo area present a real challenge when it comes to restraining such cargo during transport.
Many individuals will carefully pack articles up against a back seat and door or place objects such as blankets around the articles to keep them from sliding around or tipping over during transport. This can work depending on the care and effort expended by the individual. Others have purchased various racks and organizers sold for this purpose. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,718,584, 4,842,460 and 5,031,7669 illustrate examples of such organizers. Racks and organizers appear to serve their purpose. However, it is also apparent that such products take up valuable space when not in use. They also tend not to be versatile in the types of articles they can hold effectively, nor are they easily adaptable or configurable to accommodate objects of various shapes and sizes.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,802 of Stanesic discloses cargo hold retention system for use in trunks and cargo areas of motor vehicles. The system comprises a carpeted floor mat with at least some looped fibers configured to fit in a defined area of the vehicle, e.g. a trunk or back cargo area. The system also includes at least one rigid retention member having at least two linear upstanding walls connected at a substantially right angle. Hook-type fasteners are adhered to the bottom surfaces of the retention member.
In use, the hook-type fasteners on the rigid retention member of Stanesic interact with the looped fibers of the floor mat to secure the retention member firmly to the floor mat wherever it is placed. One or more of the rigid retention members can be secured to the carpet abutting cargo such as grocery bags or boxes to prevent the cargo from moving around or tipping over during transport. While this system is a step in the right direction, the rigid retention members nevertheless are bulky and thus expensive to pack and ship. They also take up a lot of room when not being used. Further, their fixed configuration means that the rigid retention members are not easily adaptable to accommodate cargo of odd shapes or cargo that forms an irregular footprint.
A need exists for a system and method of restraining cargo in a cargo area or trunk of a vehicle such that the cargo does not slide around or tip over as it is transported. Such a system and method should have a compact configuration for packing, shipping, and storage and should be erectable into an operational configuration when needed. The system should be easily configurable to accommodate oddly shaped cargo and cargo that forms an unusual footprint. The system also should be adaptable to carpeted surfaces as well as non-carpeted or smooth surfaces. It is to a cargo restraining system and method that successfully addresses these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.